Social capital and research in small business

In this article, we present a literature review on social capital (SC). It is based on 103 articles published between 2002 and 2011 in main academic journals dedicated to research on entrepreneurship and small business. Social Capital is a key resource for a SME which enhances entrepreneurship success and SME's performance. This review shows a strong conceptual and methodological heterogeneity. In most cases, SC is used as an independent variable and performance as a dependent variable. We show that researches where SC is treated as a dependent variable are emerging, especially researches where SC is a consequence of managerial practices or entrepreneurial practices. We conclude that there are great perspectives of research on this topic. Negative effects of social capital on entrepreneurship and SMEs management are also promising fields of research.